Dear Legislator:
On behalf of the National Taxpayers Union's 10,800 members in Washington, I urge you to oppose an enormous tax hike on your citizens by instead committing to a special session that would focus on reducing state spending. The current legislative vehicles are filled with solutions that will both damage the state's competitive edge moving forward and stretch taxpayers even further at a time when they can least afford it.
Washington, like most states, is facing a substantial budget deficit in 2010. While millions of families and businesses struggle to make ends meet, their state government has racked up an imbalance of $2.8 billion. Unfortunately, the all-too-predictable response to this situation has been much discussion and debate over "inevitable" tax increases. Rather than relying on huge tax hikes, legislators should trim back spending to alleviate this fiscal burden.
In the absence of additional spending restraint, Washingtonians are facing the largest tax increase in state history. House legislation would raise roughly $690 million in taxes, while the Senate revenue package also includes a boost in the sales tax that would ratchet up the total even higher, to $890 million. A job-killing tax increase on families and businesses makes even less economic sense in light of Washington's 9.5 percent unemployment rate.
While some insist that reducing expenditures would devastate vital services, a $2.8 billion reduction would leave the state with roughly $6 billion more than what was spent in the 2005 – 2007 biennium. Few would argue that Washington was drastically worse off during that period than it is now, especially given that the unemployment rate dropped from about 5.5 percent to 4.6 percent. Finding ways to carefully reduce the budget to a level consistent with recent history will not hurt the state's economy, but rather revitalize it by scaling back the crushing burdens of government.
As legislators, you face a choice that innumerable Washington families deal with on a daily basis: continue with current spending plans in the face of economic difficulty, or scale back spending habits in order to achieve balance. Government can do what its constituents are doing right now: tighten its belt and restructure for the future. That's why I urge you to commit to a special session in order to restrain the budget. The citizens who pay government's bills deserve that kind of responsible leadership.